Human Nature After Essence: 4 Regularity vs Necessity

Introduction: Stability Without Determinism

Building on the distinction between population statistics and individual ontology, this post examines how patterns of human behaviour can be regular without being necessary. Recognising this distinction is essential for understanding human nature without collapsing stability into essence.

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1. Regularity: What Repeats

Human actions, capacities, and tendencies often exhibit regularity:

• repeated coordination across contexts,

• common behavioural trends,

• persistent preferences or capacities.

These patterns reflect observed recurrence, not predetermined outcomes.

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2. Necessity: What Must Occur

Necessity implies inevitability. A necessary trait or behaviour:

• would occur in any context,

• is independent of relational processes,

• reflects intrinsic essence rather than emergent pattern.

Treating regularity as necessity introduces determinism where only repetition exists.

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3. How Regularity Emerges Without Necessity

Regularity arises from relational and contingent processes:

• coordination between individuals,

• reinforcement of practices over time,

• interaction with biological and social constraints.

No individual is compelled to reproduce the pattern; it persists because relational dynamics sustain it.

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4. Why the Distinction Matters

Confusing regularity with necessity leads to several problems:

• overgeneralisation and essentialism,

• premature explanatory closure,

• misreading human plasticity as blankness.

Maintaining the distinction preserves explanatory openness and allows patterns to be understood as contingent yet stable.

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5. Implications for Human Nature

This distinction allows us to:

• see human nature as emergent rather than intrinsic,

• recognise stability without invoking essence,

• appreciate variation and contingency without discarding regularity.

Patterns exist; they endure; but they do not compel.

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Conclusion: Stability as Relational Achievement

By reading regularity without inferring necessity, human nature is reframed:

• stability is achieved relationally,

• plasticity is preserved,

• explanation remains open rather than closed.

The next post will examine Plasticity Without Blankness, showing how flexibility and responsiveness coexist with constraint and stability.